AUBURN, Alabama -- With Bret Bielema in charge at Arkansas, there are few questions about the offense the Razorbacks will bring to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.

Arkansas brings a little bit more mystery on defense this year.

Under Bielema, the Razorbacks are still a 4-3 team, but new defensive coordinator Robb Smith has installed his own scheme after taking over from Chris Ash, who left for Ohio State in the offseason.

"I think there's going to be some similarities," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "He's a very good defensive coordinator. He's very sound. You just do the best you can on predicting about how they're going to play you."

Smith, who coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season after leading the Rutgers defense for several years, cut his teeth under former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.

"The first game of the year, especially when your opponent has a new coordinator, that's always hard," offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "You have an idea of what you think people will do, but you really don't know."

Under Smith, Arkansas has tried to make its defensive calls more simple, and the Razorbacks will likely run a lot of quarter-quarter-half coverages, where two defensive backs have a quarter of the field, one safety has a deep half and the boundary cornerback can play close to the line to stop the run.

The goal is to make the defense more aggressive, swarming to the football to help create turnovers.

Two years ago, Smith was the defensive coordinator at Rutgers -- his defense ranked fourth in the country in scoring, giving up just 14.2 points per game -- so Auburn has some film on his base concepts.

That being said, the Tigers are still expecting some wrinkles.

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn celebrates Auburn's final touchdown against Texas A&M during the fourth quarter Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)JULIE BENNETT

"The first game, no matter whether it's this one or other years, there's always a feeling-out time," Malzahn said. "There's usually wrinkles that you have to adjust to. First games are usually about adjustments."

Smith is trying to work with a defense that lost most of its key pieces from a unit that gave up 30.8 points per game, 12th in the SEC.

Arkansas will lean on pass-rushing defensive end Trey Flowers, defensive tackle Darius Philon and strong safety Alan Turner to lead a defense that had to fill several holes.

At any rate, Auburn's first couple of drives will be as much a fact-finding mission as an attempt to score. With a new coordinator at the helm, Arkansas will likely have a few wrinkles, and Malzahn's goal will be to figure out which adjustments he needs to make to take advantage.

"We're going to do what we do," Malzahn said. "And we're going to hopefully get a feel for them earlier in the game rather than later and try to take what they give us.